Plastic Manufacturing

12 design rules that reduce tooling cost, improve part quality, and shorten development cycles — from the engineers at Texas Injection Molding. Design for Manufacturability (DFM) in injection molding is the practice of designing parts with the constraints and capabilities of the injection molding process in mind from the beginning. Parts designed without DFM principles […]

Understanding tooling cost, piece price, and the key variables that drive injection molding program economics. Injection molding cost has two distinct components that must be understood separately: tooling cost, the one-time investment to build the mold, and piece price, the per-part cost to run production. Conflating them leads to poor sourcing decisions — either over-investing

Part design determines everything in injection molding. The shape of the part defines what the mold must do, what the process must achieve, and what the finished part can cost. Design decisions made before the mold is cut are essentially free to change. The same decisions after steel is cut can cost tens of thousands

How Tg defines the upper thermal limit of injection molded plastics — and why it matters for material selection, mold design, and part performance. Glass transition temperature (Tg) is the temperature at which an amorphous thermoplastic transitions from a hard, glassy state to a soft, rubbery one. Below Tg, the polymer chains are locked in

What V-0, V-1, V-2, HB, and 5V mean for injection molded plastic parts — and how to specify the right rating for your application. UL 94 is the standard for flammability testing of plastic materials for parts in devices and appliances, published by Underwriters Laboratories. It classifies plastics by how they respond to a standardized

How the overmolding process works, which material combinations bond, and the design rules that determine whether your overmolded part succeeds or fails. Overmolding is an injection molding process that produces a single part from two different materials by molding the second material directly over the first. The result is a multi-material part — a rigid

Medical manufacturing is the design, production, assembly, and quality control of products used in healthcare settings. It includes everything from surgical instruments and implantable devices to diagnostic equipment, injection molded components, sterile packaging, and single-use medical consumables. Unlike many other industries, medical manufacturing operates under strict regulatory expectations, advanced material requirements, and zero-tolerance quality standards.